IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
WRITER/ARTIST: Matt Wagner
COLORS: Brennan Wagner
LETTERS: Dave Lanphear
12pp, Color, $1.99 U.S. (July 2017)
Rated “T/ Teen Plus”
“Third Interlude”
Mage is a fantasy comic book with superhero elements written and drawn by Matt Wagner (Grendel). The series is comprised of three volumes, each running 15 issues. The first was Mage: The Hero Discovered, which was published by defunct publisher, Comico the Comic Company, from 1984 to 1986. The second was Mage: The Hero Defined, which was published from 1997 to 1999 by Image Comics. The third and final volume is Mage: The Hero Denied, which is scheduled to begin publication from Image beginning this coming August.
The Hero Discovered introduced Kevin Matchstick, an alienated young man who meets a wizard called Mirth. Kevin discovers that he has superhuman abilities and that a magic baseball bat wielded by a friend actually belongs to him. That baseball is Excalibur, and Kevin represents King Arthur.
The Hero Defined takes place several years later and finds Kevin fighting supernatural menaces in the company of other heroes. They are Kirby Hero (an avatar of Hercules) and Joe Phat (an avatar of the Native American figure, Coyote). Kevin discovers that he has misunderstood his mission and that he represents more than one mythical hero. Kevin is also Gilgamesh, and he initially does not realize that his new mage/mentor is an old tramp named Wally Ut that Kevin often chooses to dismiss as a crazy old annoyance. Kevin also meets his future wife.
In the ongoing Grendel comic book from the 1980s (Grendel #16-19, Comico), Mage ran as a back-up feature that comprised two “Interludes,” stories that took place after The Hero Discovered. With the impending publication of the final Mage volume, Image Comics has released Mage, Book Three: The Hero Denied, Issue Zero, which contains the “Third Interlude.”
This 12-page comic book finds Kevin Matchstick a.k.a. “The Pendragon” on a monster hunt. He meets “The Steeze,” a new kind of hero who declares that he is part of new breed that has moved beyond the “old-timey” need for an avatar. The Steeze is a hot young thing, but in being dismissive of The Pendragon, he may be missing the big picture about an adversary.
You never know what you are going to get when you get a sequel or follow-up to a classic work a long time after the original was published. Mage: The Hero Defined began over a decade after The Hero Discovered ended. Mage: The Hero Discovered was one of the first comic books published by a small or independent publisher and released on the Direct Market that I ever read. It immediately loved it and re-read it several times in a variety of reprint formats. It remains one of my all-time favorite comic book series. [I must admit that I have not read The Hero Discovered since the late 1990s.]
The Hero Discovered was so fresh and new, and you could see Matt Wagner grow and mature both as a writer, storyteller, and comic book artist over the course of the series. It was new and imaginative and also lighthearted, even when characters were killed. The Hero Defined was edgier, and it lacked the sweetness and sparkle of the first volume. I read the entirety of The Hero Defined once and a few chapters a second time. I liked it, but never warmed to it the way I did the original.
Eighteen years is a long time to wait for the last volume, as far as I'm concerned. Yet I find that Mage, Book Three: The Hero Denied, Issue Zero feels as if not much time has passed between The Hero Defined and this “interlude.” The art crackles with the first stirrings of sparkle and potential, and the story shakes off the dirt and begins to summon the magic. Can't wait!
A
9 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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